Iraqi papers on chemical weapons were handwritten

Handwritten "documents", without any corroboration of origin were used yesterday by Downing Street to claim that Iraq might be preparing to use chemical weapons against British and American troops in an impending war.

BBC Radio 4's Today programme said the unsigned papers purported to show that the Iraqi armed forces had been issued with chemical suits and anti-nerve gas agents, and thus the Baghdad regime must be preparing to use weapons of mass destruction.

The BBC report led, in the course of the day, to news reports saying "damning new evidence" had emerged that Saddam Hussein was preparing his troops for a nerve gas war.

The pieces of paper, which have been seen by The Independent, were presented to the BBC by an Iraqi opposition group who say they were smuggled out of the country in the past month.

The Iraqi National Conference (INC), which is comprised of former soldiers, said it had received the papers from a serving, high-ranking, member of the Iraqi military. Another, larger, opposition group, also called the INC (Iraqi National Congress), stated that they knew nothing about the "documents" and did not want to be seen as producing them.

A spokesman for Downing Street said "...We are not surprised by the [BBC] report because it is in line with... our own dossier of evidence." Another spokesman later said that Downing Street had not seen the document.

An article headlined "Iraq preparing for chemical war" on the BBC website said the "BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says the Iraqi opposition group has vested interests in seeing Saddam Hussein undermined, so it is very difficult to assess if we should believe these documents." She says the timing of the release is significant.